Martin O’Neill given Celtic transfer ‘guarantees’ by Dermot Desmond – insider

Martin O’Neill received “guarantees” over Celtic’s summer recruitment from majority shareholder Dermot Desmond before agreeing to take permanent charge, according to Peter Grant, with the Scottish champions still waiting to complete their first signing of the transfer window.

Grant, a Celtic TV commentator and former Parkhead player and coach, believes O’Neill will have insisted on assurances about strengthening the squad before formally accepting the job. Celtic remain the only Scottish Premiership club yet to make an addition this summer, despite the new campaign and Champions League qualifiers edging closer.

Uncertainty over key names

Daizen Maeda and Arne Engels both face uncertain futures at the club, while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has agreed to extend his stay in Glasgow. There has, however, been no update on out-of-contract forward Kelechi Iheanacho or on loanees including Marcelo Sarracchi as the summer window ticks on.

Celtic open their Premiership campaign against Dundee on 3 August, with the first leg of their Champions League play-off round following soon after on 18 and 19 August. That tight turnaround has intensified scrutiny of the club’s business, or lack of it, so far this summer.

Speaking to the Sunday Post, Grant said: “Martin is a wily old fox. He has been around the block. He will know more than anyone that Celtic got away with it last season. It was a remarkable campaign and what he achieved to guide the team to a double was remarkable. But you don’t get away with it twice.”

He added: “He will know that this is a squad that needs to be strengthened and he will have had that conversation before accepting the job. He isn’t a young, relatively inexperienced manager coming in with no knowledge of how it works between the boardroom and the dressing room. He is well versed in all of this. He will have had a few guarantees about what he was getting in terms of being able to go and mould this squad into the kind of team he wants. He will be more than aware of where the deficiencies were last season.”

Grant’s four-man shortlist

Reports in Azerbaijan suggest Camilo Duran has agreed a switch from Qarabag worth around £3 million, while Celtic are also said to be keen on Hertha Berlin goalkeeper Tjark Ernst, valued at roughly £4.3 million. Grant, though, insists further business is essential, naming two strikers, a centre-back and a midfielder as priority areas.

Explaining the slow pace of the window, he said: “A major tournament being on definitely has a knock-on effect to the window – every agent and manager will tell you that. Back in the day you sometimes had players who wanted their futures tied up before they went to a tournament. Now, the advice to players from agents is to go and put themselves in the shop window and see what happens after it. The long and short of it is that there is a domino effect in terms of players and clubs when it comes to movement.”

On specific needs, Grant continued: “He will know what Celtic need. They definitely need two strikers. I don’t think they should ever have let Adam Idah go. Daizen could have gone last year and it would have made sense to do that and have someone else come in alongside Idah. Now, they need at least a couple of centre-forwards and a centre-half. Cameron Carter-Vickers has had a few injury issues and there was a softness about Celtic defensively last season that needs to be addressed. Another midfielder would help the equation too.”

Read more: Celtic ‘agree to pay Qarabag’s asking price’ for winger Camilo Duran